You Can Change...

It's time for an update, and I apologize for the delay.  This week is finals week and I'm trying to get prepared for a couple of tests.  I'm pretty sure I have ADD mixed with anxiousness for Christmas and to preach.  Lets put it this way...I am one big ball of nerves that is about to pop like a big zit!  Please pray for my last two tests, my theology test and Greek test, especially my Greek test.  I need all the prayer, and I know there are a couple others in my class that need prayer as well.  

On the original reason why I decided to post something tonight, I was listening to James MacDonald's sermon entitled "Self in the Dirt."  In that sermon he was preaching in regards to repentance, and he talked about how many people are ashamed of their past and are ashamed of things that they still do today in private.  What he said though is a good reminder to all of us.  We can begin clean.  We can start over.  It all comes down to one word:  REPENTANCE!  It is a serious issue and something that should not be taken lightly.  I know that I was stirred when I heard this message and immediately thought of things that I am not proud of in my life now or in my past.  But we can begin afresh with God, if we will come to Him with a heart of repentance.  I know that I need repentance.  Do you need repentance?

Colorado...I Feel Your Pain...Sorta

It's a balmy 29 degrees this morning in Dallas.  They say with the wind chill that it feels like 17 degrees.  It's like being at home...only not.  It's close I guess.  The weather channel website says the current temp in Yuma is 23, but it feels like 10 degrees.

Take heart, it only feels 7 degrees warmer in Texas right now.

What They Think of "Us"...

So I was reading the Rocky Mountain News online, and skimmed this story talking about the one year anniversary since the shootings last year at Youth With A Mission and New Life Church in Colorado Springs.  What I found most interesting though was not the story, but rather the comments left after the story.  You can click here if you would like to check it out.  It gives a good inside glimpse to what the "new atheism" looks like today.

Lay It Aside

Before I get to what I wanted to write down this morning, I have to say thank you to the Young's for letting me stop over and visit them this weekend on my way to Dallas.  I very much appreciate your support, encouragement, and good food!  Thank you so very much!

On my way to school this morning, I heard a verse on the radio that really hit home to me.  It is one of those things that you have felt for a while and then the verse speaks to that very issue.  The past two weeks have been somewhat difficult, I must admit.  Deep inside me I sense an unrest and uneasiness.  I have realizing more that this is the battle that is literally inside all of us.  It is a battle between God and the world.  It is the battle between following God or following the pleasures of the world.  

The verse on the radio this morning that hit me is Hebrews 12:1-2, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God" (ESV).  

We know the things that weigh us down.  We know the sins that we keep running back to, simply because they are familiar to us.  I urge you to cast off the sins that weigh you down, so that you may run the race that is set before you.

My prayer request today is that we would pray for one another, asking God for the strength, the will, and the desire to cast aside every weight.  Please pray for each other and for myself.